The Opportunity for Renewable Natural Gas in Canada

Currently, in the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, natural gas distribution utilities are putting RNG into the pipeline distribution system. By the end of 2016, utilities will have brought online eleven RNG projects producing enough renewable fuel for 51,000 homes or equivalent to approximately 132 million litres of renewable fuel for transportation markets.

Currently, in the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, natural gas distribution utilities are putting RNG into the pipeline distribution system. By the end of 2016, utilities will have brought online eleven RNG projects producing enough renewable fuel for 51,000 homes or equivalent to approximately 132 million litres of renewable fuel for transportation markets.

In Ontario, there is a single RNG project in Hamilton from the municipal waste water treatment facility. The Region of Peel and the City of Toronto have expressed great interest in producing RNG from source separated organic waste that they collect. But, at opposite ends of Canada, two communities have quietly set themselves at the forefront of the North American renewable natural gas movement, displacing fossil fuels and reducing emissions from landfills by converting organic waste into methane.

In Quebec, Saint-Hyacinthe, the town of 53,000 runs the second-largest anaerobic digester in the world, converting its own organic waste, that from neighbouring municipalities and near-by agri-food industries to RNG, meeting well in advance provincial legislation banning organic waste from landfills by 2022.

By the end of this year, the facility will be at full production, producing 13 to 16 million cubic metres of gas per year distributed by provincial utility Gaz Métro, reducing fuel costs for the municipal fleet and creating revenue through waste collection fees. read more >>